


Invisible Scars

by ladybug218



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2017-11-06 14:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/419782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladybug218/pseuds/ladybug218
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot goes to check on Parker after The Future Job</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invisible Scars

Parker had spent the better part of her life crafting a careful persona and only allowing people to see what she wanted them to see. It wasn't that she was fake; her social awkwardness was definitely not an act, but it was born out of a life lacking solid interpersonal relationships. After the loss of her parents followed almost immediately by the loss of her brother, she was shuttled from one foster home to another. In the beginning, she played the part of the lovable orphan, hoping that one of her foster families would adopt her so she could have a real family again. However, none of them were equipped to deal with the nightmares of a girl who had watched three people die in her short life. After the third time that happened, Parker decided that she wasn't going to let anyone get close to her again. Her only friend became the stuffed bunny her parents gave her for her birthday a few months before the accident.

Her experiences in foster care led her to the conclusion that people weren't worth caring about and as soon as she turned eighteen, she took off and never looked back. Holidays became optimal days to pull jobs since most places were closed and the skeleton crew of security guards were generally bitter that they were stuck at work instead of off with their families. People came and went, serving whatever purpose she needed, and she never got attached.

Until she accepted a job working with Nate Ford, Eliot Spencer and Alec Hardison.

It took a long time for Parker to feel comfortable around the rest of the crew. Sophie helped a lot, reaching out and offering to help Parker learn the finer arts of human interaction, but it was Hardison and his inexplicable crush that made her finally realize that this group of people might be the family she had been looking for for so many years. Nate was certainly the closest thing she had to a father figure and Sophie made her feel safe and warm, feelings that she had never associated with anyone besides her mother.

Eliot was the wild card. He was just as much of a lone wolf as Parker and he never hid the fact that he thought she was insane. They were friendly, sure, and Parker had appreciated his fighting lessons, but he seemed to hold himself a little more apart than the rest of the gang. Which made it all the more surprising when he was the one Parker found knocking on her door the night they wrapped the fake psychic job.

"What's wrong?" Parker asked, her forehead crinkling in a frown.

"Nothing is wrong," Eliot said. Even Parker could tell he looked uncomfortable. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Parker glanced around for a moment before settling her gaze on him again. "I'm fine, Eliot."

Eliot let out a huff that generally indicated he was ten seconds away from punching someone. "Look, can I come in?" he asked.

"Yeah, okay," she said, stepping aside and letting him into her house. It was small and sparsely furnished, with precious little in the way of artwork or knickknacks. There was a carton of Ben & Jerry's on the coffee table and the TV was tuned to a cheesy disaster movie. She watched Eliot take in all of those details and more before he settled uneasily on one end of the sofa. "Want some ice cream or something?" she offered.

"Take a beer if you got it," he said.

Without a word, she padded out of the room, her bunny slippers keeping her footfalls soft as she headed to the kitchen, grabbed two beers and walked back to the living room. In the forty-six seconds her errand took, Eliot had wandered around her living room and picked up the stuffed bunny from the old rocking chair in the corner.

"Hey, put that down."

"Sorry," he apologized, putting the bunny back and turning to face her. He took one of the beers and finally seemed to notice that she was wearing a pair of white pajama pants emblazoned with money signs and a green tank top. "I know it's kind of late," he said.

Parker shrugged. "You've never come to my house before, no matter what time it was."

"Never had a reason to," Eliot replied.

"So what's your reason tonight?" Parker wasn't one for beating around the bush.

Eliot took a long drink of his beer. "I know this job was hard for you," he said finally.

"Yeah, so? The Serbian orphanage job was hard for me too," she said. "And you had to work with your ex when we did the horse thing."

"None of us like to share things about our pasts," he said. "And I know it really freaked you out when the psychic talked about your brother."

Parker flinched almost imperceptibly. "I don't want to talk about that."

Eliot set his beer on the coffee table and put his hand on her knee. The physical contact surprised her enough that she didn't pull away. "My brother died when I was ten. He was my best friend and my role model. And he was gay. He wasn't ashamed of who he was, even though back then it was even less accepted than it is now. He got jumped by a couple football players when he was walking home from school. They beat him so bad that he died three days later. I made my mom sign me up for martial arts a week after the funeral."

When he finished telling the story, he reached for his beer and took another drink, his eyes never leaving hers. She broke eye contact first, looking down at her hands. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity but was actually only a few minutes before Parker finally spoke. "Parker was my brother's middle name."

"It suits you," he said and she was grateful that he didn't ask her questions about what her real name was or why she had chosen to use her brother's middle name.

"He was all I had left after our parents died," she said. "It was a car accident. On their anniversary. The only day of the year that they would leave us with a sitter and go out alone. They were both only children, born late in life to their parents. The only grandparent I ever met was my father's father and he died when I was three. Because we were so young, the social workers managed to find a foster family that would keep us together. They doted on us, bought us things that our parents could never really afford."

Eliot nodded, having shifted a bit closer to her as he listened to her story. "Like bicycles?"

Parker gave him a wry smile, surprised that he was able to put that together. "Yeah. After his accident, the family was deemed unfit to serve as foster parents and they sent me back to the orphanage and I realized that I couldn't ever love anyone again."

Her tone was matter-of-fact and Eliot's confusion at that statement was obvious. "Why not?"

"Because everyone I loved died," she said. "I didn't want it to happen again."

The corners of his mouth turned down in a frown and his hand tightened slightly on her thigh. "Parker, you know that none of those things were your fault, right?"

"Logically? Yeah," she said. "But if I don't care about people, I can't get hurt again. So it's to protect me as much as them."

Eliot gave a soft chuff of a laugh. "So you don't care about anyone?"

She shrugged, knowing that he was going to point to himself and Hardison and Nate and Sophie as examples of people that she not only cared about, but were still alive, despite what they all did for a living. He could even throw in Tara and Maggie and he'd be technically correct. "It's hard to explain," she said, hoping that he would drop the subject.

Of course, she wasn't that lucky. Whyever Eliot had sought her out, he wasn't about to be so easily dissuaded. "Our crew is exactly like a dysfunctional family," he said. "Nate's the dad because he's in charge and thinks he's infallible. Sophie's the mom because she takes care of everyone and keeps Nate in line." He left the 'when she was there' unspoken, but even Parker was able to pick up on it. "I'm the big brother who protects you and Hardison."

Parker's nose wrinkled at the big brother thing.

"What? You don't think I'm right?"

"I don't like the implications that you and Hardison are my brothers," she said.

Eliot winced almost imperceptibly. "Sorry. I don't mean any disrespect to your brother."

"Huh? That's not what I meant," she said.

"Then what did you mean?" he asked, definitely not tracking with her meaning.

She smirked. "If you're my brothers, I can't have sex with you."

It was like a moment in a slapstick comedy. Eliot had been reaching for his beer, but her words threw him so much that he ended up knocking it over and spilling it all over both of them. He immediately jumped up from the sofa, muttering something about paper towels, and she missed the warmth of his hand which had been slowly creeping up her leg. "Eliot, shut up. I'll clean that up later."

"Parker, if you let it sit, it'll..." he trailed off, shaking his head at the look on her face. "You've got issues, you know that."

"Yeah. So do you. So does Alec. And Nate. And Sophie. Tara probably does too. We wouldn't be thieves if we were well-adjusted members of society."

Eliot was obviously not impressed with her moment of zen. "Well, can you at least get me a towel since I'm soaked?"

"I could," she said, drawing out the words. "Or you could just take your clothes off."

"Parker."

"Eliot."

He huffed again and she smirked. "I'm really not sure that's such a good idea."

"So why did you come over here tonight?" Parker asked.

His mouth opened, but no words came out. He closed it again and then stripped off his shirt. Parker leaned back to fully appreciate the sight of his bare chest. "I didn't actually come over here with the intention of seducing you," he insisted.

"But you thought about it."

Eliot shrugged one shoulder. "It crossed my mind."

Parker smiled up at him and leaned forward again, her hand darting out and one finger tracing the network of scars marring his skin. "I'm glad you came over."

It was obvious that her touch was having an affect on him and he caught her hand in his, tugging her to her feet. "So am I," he admitted, before tilting his head down and capturing her mouth with his own. Parker closed her eyes and ran her hands up his back, feeling the raised skin that indicated more scars. Eliot made no move to stop her exploration and she suddenly realized that the invisible scars were the ones that hurt the worst.


End file.
